Daily (or almost daily) ideas, tid bits, factoids, stories, research notes, news, and other fun things from the most interesting time period in American history! After reading my blog, click on the links below for more information about the New Deal.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Above: "Children at Play and Sport II," an oil painting by Moses Soyer (1899-1974), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1938. Soyer went on to become a very prominent artist, and his works are held in galleries across the United States. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Circus People Resting," an oil painting by Bernice Cross (1912-1996), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, ca. 1933-1934. Cross was born in Iowa, but spent most of her professional career in Washington, DC. Her works are held in several galleries today. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "The Very Strong Man," a sculpture by Eugenie Gershoy (1901-1986), created while she was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1936-1940. According to an exhibit label, "During the late 1930s, Eugenie Gershoy began working for the Works Progress Administration in New York. A friend of hers, the artist Max Spivak, was designing a series of murals for a children’s library in Astoria, Long Island. Gershoy decided to create colorful figurines to go along with Spivak’s paintings... The library was so pleased with the work of Gershoy and Spivak, they rebuilt the space into an oval to emphasize the circus setting." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: A WPA poster created in California, ca. 1936-1941. Griffith Park is in Los Angeles. The WPA's Federal Theatre Project not only performed classic drama, but also presented "marionette shows, circuses, musical comedies, light operas, Negro theater productions... foreign language productions" and more (Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-1943, 1946, p. 65). Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: "Trapeze Girl," a color lithograph by Russell T. Limbach (1904-1971), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1935. According to the Brier Hill Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, Limbach, "was the recipient of numerous awards" and "His works are held in the collections of numerous libraries and museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Museum of Art." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Clown Elephants," a watercolor by Fuji Nakamizo (1889-1950), created while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1940. According to the New England Art Exchange, "Born in Japan, Nakamizo worked and exhibited widely in the United States until his death in 1950." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Russian Fair," a wood engraving on paper by Charles Surendorf (1906-1979), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. According to AskArt.com, Surendorf was born in Indiana, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, moved to San Francisco, and taught at Mills College in Oakland. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Side Show Ticket Taker," another oil painting by Bernice Cross (see second image in this blog post), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, ca. 1933-1934. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: A WPA poster by artist Charles Verschuuren, promoting a water carnival in New York, 1936. According to his Wikipedia page, Verschuuren was a Dutch painter who moved to the United States in 1922, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II as an illustrator. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: "Amusement Park," a lithograph by Ann Nooney (1900-1964), created while she was in WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1941. According to the International Fine Print Dealers Association, "Twenty-two of [Ann Nooney's] prints are in the Works Progress Administration collection of the New York Public Library print room. Three of her prints appear as illustrations in the 'WPA Guide to New York City, 1939.'" Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Italians in Jefferson Park," an oil painting by Jerome Myers (1867-1940), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. Thomas Jefferson Park is in New York City. According to his Wikipedia page, a 1923 magazine quoted Myers about his interest in depicting city life: "All my life I had lived, worked and played in the poorest streets of American cities. I knew them and their population and was one of them. Others saw ugliness and degradation there, I saw poetry and beauty..." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Festival," an oil painting by Daniel Celentano (1902-1980), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. An exhibition label explains, "Such street festivals, or festa, were vital social events that helped the Italian American Catholic communities of New York survive the stresses of the Depression as they had endured previous decades of poverty and oppression." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: A WPA poster, created in Massachusetts, 1938. Vaudeville was a popular form of entertainment in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But Vaudeville-like shows still exist today. For example, jugglers, magicians, comedians, sword-swallowers, and theatre performers entertain crowds at Renaissance Festivals all across the country. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A WPA poster, created in New York City, 1937. The Federal Theatre was scorned by conservatives as a "waste of taxpayer money," but millions of middle and low-income Americans enjoyed the shows for a modest fee, or even free. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: "Festival at Hamburg," a mural study for the Hamburg, Iowa Post Office, by William Edward Lewis Bunn (1910-2009), created while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1941. According to SNAC, a collaborative enterprise that includes the National Archives and the University of California, "Wiliam Edward Lewis Bunn was a designer, muralist, and painter in Muscatine, Iowa and Ojai, Calif... During the 1930s he won commissions from the Federal Department of Fine Arts [the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Works Agency] to paint murals in public buildings throughout the Midwest. He also worked as an industrial designer for Shaeffer Pen and Cuckler Steel." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.